EU Membership Costs Each Briton £2,000 a Year

The Taxpayers' Alliance figures for the cost of belonging to the EU are much higher than the narrow budget contributions reported by the Treasury.

The UK pays more than £6 billion a year in direct support for the European Commission and other EU projects.

The TPA says the real cost of EU membership is actually many times that.

The group, which argues for lower Government spending, says that the true price of being an EU member comes in the cost to British businesses in complying with European regulations, the cost of Government bureaucracy to administer those rules, and other consequences of membership like food prices inflated by farm subsidies.

The European Commission has estimated that the cost of the European project is around £188 for every person in the EU.

However, according to a Matthew Elliott, the TPA chief executive, the total cost across the EU is £495 billion or £1,968 for ever man woman and child in Europe,

Mr Elliot makes his claims in a new book, The Great European Rip-Off.

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